1 online resource (xxvi, 447 pages) :

Anthropological archaeology and other disciplines concerned with the formation of early complex societies are undergoing a theoretical shift stemming from the realization that the social evolution of complex societies was more varied and complex than imagined. Given the need for new directions in theory, the book proposes that anthropologists look to political science, especially the rational choice theory of collective action. Collective action theorists propose that state formation results from the strategic behavior of rational and self-interested actors who make up the polity, including a

Includes bibliographical references (pages 406-438)-and indexes

Front Matter; Introduction; Rethinking the Role of Agency in Political Evolution; The Social Actor in Collective Action; Selecting a Sample of Societies for Comparative Coding; Archaeological and Historical Contexts for the Coded Societies; Revenue Sources; Public Goods; Bureaucratization; Modes of Control of Principals; Theory Testing and a Question: Is State Formation a Product of Rational Choice or Symbolic Structure?; Collective Action Processes at World-Economy, Polity, and Community Scales; Collective Action and Political Evolution; Back Matter

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